System Retrospective: The PSone era

Console Name: Sony PlayStation, later rebranded as the PSOne in its final years
Original SRP: USD 299.99
Original Philippine SRP: Php 15,000.00 (modified)

Notable Titles / Cult Classics: Gran Turismo 1 & 2, Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Suikoden II, Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter, Vandal Hearts I & II, Tomba!, Parappa the Rapper, UmJammer Lammy, Final Fantasies VII through IX, Ridge Racer Type 4, WWF Warzone, Tomb Raider 1 & 2, Poy Poy, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2, Ace Combat 2, Tekken 1, 2 and 3, CastleVania: Symphony of the Night, Brave Fencer Musashi, Other Life Azure Dreams, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, Xenogears, Ape Escape, Bust-A-Groove, Valkyrie Profile, Legend of Dragoon, my hands are getting tired

With all the (admittedly well-deserved) praise the PS2 gets for having the best and most comprehensive console game library in the modern era, I thought it would be a good idea to shine some light on Sony's maiden voyage into the world of console gaming, its rich and interesting history, and reminisce about the many great titles we played on it.

First, as always, some history: as you may or may not recall, Sony's system wasn't even supposed to be a "Sony" system at all. The PlayStation was originally created as a special project for Nintendo; it was intended to be a CD-ROM based add-on for the SNES, which Sony would then manufacture. After Nintendo pulled the plug on the project, a vengeful Sony decided to strike out on its own and sell the hardware they had developed as a stand-alone product.

Thus, the Sony PlayStation (lovingly yet inexplicably dubbed the PSX by industry types) was born, and the era of PlayStation begun.

The PS1's immediate competition, the Sega Saturn, launched earlier than Sony in an effort to build up a larger install base ahead of their incoming competitor. However, this was a bad move tactically on Sega's part for the following reasons: A) They had no games to support this advance launch, and the Saturn launched in the States with an absolutely abysmal selection of titles. B) Just a few months prior, Sega had duped their loyalists into purchasing a 32X, which supposedly gave Mega Drive owners 32bits of game-processing goodness but in reality was a very expensive paperweight. Launching a "true 32-bit" console in the form of the Sega Saturn so soon after these empty promises left many Sega fans feeling betrayed, and these deserters jumped ship to the good ship Sony.

And what a good ship it was indeed! I remember that crazy piece of shit launching for 15 large at Game Stuff in Virra Mall (the pre-fire version), the unit amazingly enough coming pre-modified despite being scorchingly new hardware. Fake copies of Battle Arena Toh Shin Den sold alongside it for the princely sum of Php 300, and to those of us who first saw them, it was like the future had finally come.

Toh Shin Den in particular looked amazing; after seeing the blocky visuals of Virtua Fighter, we were all disappointed, thinking that if that was as good the visuals of these new fangled 3D fighters got, we'd stick with Street Fighter, thanks. BAT looked fantastic, was much more fast paced than Virtua Fighter, and was much easier to learn. Unlike Sega's disgusting abortion of a launch, Sony followed up BAT's impact really quick: Tekken 1! Ridge Racer! Wild Arms! Crash Bandicoot! The hits kept coming in waves, and Sega couldn't keep up. It didn't help much that the Sega Saturn's multiprocessor architecture was hard to program for in comparison to the comparatively simple PSX. (Oh, the irony. Little did Sony know that 2 generations later, they would follow Sega's ill-conceived architectural mistake, which surely cost them some market share to the Xbox 360.)

Moving forward, as the PSOne got older and the years wore on, Sony pioneered a lot of things that we take for granted nowadays:

First off, they began the emancipation of gaming as a medium in the public eye; by that I mean they elevated playing videogames as something that was percieved to be the territory of little kids and obssessive computer geeks to something that was viewed as socially acceptable.

Secondly, Sony became the only company to win a console war (in terms of unit sales) on its maiden voyage: the PlayStation handily outclassed both the N64 and the Saturn by huge margins, which had never been done before and hasn't been repeated since. (They would achieve another milestone in the 128-bit era by becoming the first console manufacturer to win the console war in two consecutive generations, but that is a story for another time.)

Lastly, they held their own and established the disc-based medium as the new standard that had to be followed. Discs were cheaper to make than cartridges and held more data, thus games could be mass produced for a fraction of the cost it would take to publish a cartridge game, and still retain higher profit margins. They were also able to hold much more space in terms of game data, allowing for uncompressed textures and sound, which in turn made for better looking, better sounding, and lengthier adventures. Nintendo counted on their brand recognition to carry them through, and failed miserably - their decision to use the cartridge based format (which meant more money for them, and a greater amount of control over game reproduction) cost them market share and the support of key allies. It is common knowledge that the reason long time Nintendo ally SquareSoft decided to jump ship was because of their belief that the RPG genre could no longer be advanced on the limited space a cartridge format provided. As a result, Sony got Final Fantasy VII exclusively, and the rest was history.

Anyway, while we're talking about games, have you ever stopped to think about just how MUCH gaming evolved as a medium during the PSOne era? It's not even close to resembling any other period in gaming history, as the level of evolution console gaming experienced in this span is simply unbelievable. When the system launched, we were mostly subjected to better-looking versions of the same stuff we were playing in previous generations, as Sony was basically trying to work from Nintendo's pre-existing template for success. But at the time of the system's death many years later, many genres had undergone a complete and total transformation. I'm going to put on my Ace Attorney hat now and present some conclusive evidence for your approval:

Remember when having an "arcade-perfect" conversion of a racing game was a crucial selling point for a console? That's how PSOne began, with Namco plugging Ridge Racer and its "futuristic" 3D graphics.









By the time the console neared its end, Gran Turismo 2 had clearly established that arcade ports were a relic of the past, and that increased depth of gameplay was demanded of console racing software.









At launch, RPG's hadn't evolved much from the 16-bit generation, as simplistic old school RPG's like Wild Arms 1 and Beyond the Beyond were the norm.










At the time of the PSOne's demise, Squaresoft had had successfully expanded on the much more cinematic formula that FFVII had previously established, heralding the advent of the CG-heavy, multi-CD epic.







The Street Fighter series and its countless spinoffs were absolutely dominant at the beginning of the 32-bit console cycle. Most fighting fans, after seeing the slow-paced, plodding gameplay that Sega's Virtua Fighter 1 provided, elected to stick with the old and familiar.







Six years later, Namco had pretty much established dominance in this sector, growing the fighting market by leaps and bounds with each successive installment of the new-fangled, gloriously 3D Tekken, and reducing the Street Fighter diehards to an insular cult (a cult to which I still belong, by the way, so no hate mail please.)







At launch, platforming was still pretty much mired in its 2D and 2.5D past - simplistic (if still satisfying) titles like the first installments of Rayman and Crash Bandicoot.











By the end of the era, it had evolved into the 3D collect-a-thon, represented best, I think, by the marvelous Ape Escape.










At launch, console first person shooting was still attached to last generation, flat-plane PC titles like Final Doom. (DOOM!?! WTF?)











In the twilight years, we had Quake II, which while still being port of a last generation PC title represented a considerable evolution from the pap us console guys were forced to live with. It was also one of the best multitap games on the PS1.








One last point to ponder: at the PSOne's advent, action adventure as a genre meant mindless shooting and simplistic, linear gameplay with a modicum of plot or character development, like Contra: Legacy of War.



While at the PSOne's deathbed...

action adventure meant Metal Gear motherfucking Solid. Nuff said.

Please Make This Fucking Game: Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) Collection, for PSN/XBL

Capcom's Ace Attorney saga is one of my favorite series of all time. When it first came out, I was so hooked on the game's offbeat humor that I found myself subsconsciously thinking "Objection!" and "Take That!" during applicable real life situations:

Boss: John, I need that additional report in by 3PM tommorrow, OK?
Me: Um... I've got some other stuff to finish sir, but OK, I'll squeeze it in. (OBJECTION!)
Boss: Huh? May sinasabi ka?
Me: Wala sir. Guniguni mo lang yan. (TAKE THAT!)

That's both pretty funny, and pretty fucking sad.

Anyway, the reason I love Ace Attorney so much is that the characters are so endearing. Phoenix Wright (and to a lesser extent, Apollo Justice) comes across as a very "everyman" type of hero; he's generally competent, but often gets bamboozled by his rival, district attorney/chief prosecutor/lovable jerk Miles Edgeworth. By the end of each case though, using a combination of help from his many hilarious cohorts, tenacious courtroom theatrics, hard-boiled investigating and no small amount of pure, dumb luck, he wins out in the end and gets his client (who somehow always happens to be the victim of some kind of frame-up) acquitted.

In every installment, the humor is always goofy and hilarious (I've never played a Phoenix game in which I didn't laugh out loud and break into ear-to-ear grins many, many times), the writing is sharp and free of Engrish, and the plot is gripping enough to keep you playing into the wee hours of the morning. Sure, the gameplay is simple, but it's extremely fulfilling and entertaining, and in the end that's what counts for me. I'm not sure if gamers would be willing to pay full PSN price for such short games, so I propose that they sell the original 3 game series as a package.

The reasons I think a release like this on the PSN would be a good idea are fourfold:

1) Phoenix Wright needs to be exposed to other audiences besides Nintendo fanboys. It's too good a series to just keep on one platform, and sharing this on PSN and Xbox Live would expand Ace Attorney's awareness.

2) I want to see high-resolution, redrawn sprites and a booming orchestral version of the soundtrack, unlike the WiiWare version which is just a straight port. They could use the already-released-on-CD live versions and use that as the BGM. If that's too much like charity for Capcom (can't give away ALL the good stuff at once, after all) they could just clean up the MIDI files from the DS game instead.

3) They could package everything together in one download - all three Ace Attorney games (and Apollo Justice, if they're so inclined) for like USD 25 or 30 sounds about fair. You could make a considerable amount of money for a relatively small amount of effort, as the games have already been translated. Considering it would be download-only, and they wouldn't have to pay for cartridge or disc production costs, Capcom could make a pretty decent amount of dough.

4) A PSN release would serve as a marketing tool to promote the upcoming Miles Edgeworth game for the DS. Nuff said.

5) They could make it worthwhile for long-time Ace Attorney fans to repurchase by packaging the three AA games with the fabled, never-before-translated-into-English Gyakuten Saiban Encyclopedia, which gives a comprehensive reference to most every character, case and major plot event in the Ace Attorney universe. I'm betting the Nintendo customer who buys Phoenix Wright is exactly the kind of hardcore gamer who also owns a PS3 or 360, so the market will be there. Quirky Japanese titles like Ace Attorney don't exactly appeal much to the mainstream.

And with that, I rest my case. TAKE THAT!

As a further closing argument, I leave you with the Phoenix Wright machinima version of "Boot To The Head" from a year ago, a truly classic comedy skit. (CLICK HERE for the YouTube/SaveVid link as this site doesnt want to upload MP4's.)

And one for Jenny and the wimp. Hahahahahaha! :-)

C'mon, Capcom, make it happen. PLEASE MAKE THIS FUCKING GAME!

An essay on Trophy Whoring: One man’s addiction, and subsequent “cure”

I’m not ashamed to admit that I was (and still am) a trophy whore.

Yes, I’ve got an addictive personality, and in the past, I always secretly envied Xbox 360 gamers’ ability to gain Gamerscore for any title released on that system. Needless to say, when Sony announced that Trophies were going to be implemented into PS3 games, I immediately set about tracking down some titles that had announced their support for the service: I bought Burnout Paradise off the Playstation Store, and I duped some poor dude into trading me a sealed copy of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (R1) for my recently bought copy of (ugh) Devil May Cry 4 (R1). (Yeah, the game may have been pretty new, but Uncharted 1 was way, way better than that steaming pile.) And that, my friends, is where my problem began.

When addiction takes hold, it takes a while to let go.

Going back, the Uncharted experience was really great, but what totally pushed it over the top was the Trophy collecting. It was really addictive to work through the game, and watch your level climb ever higher with every shiny doodad you collected (combined with the malamig-sa-tenga na “You Got A Trophy” sound effect).

Initially, this actually had a negative effect on my gaming experience at first. In the months following my acquiring the Uncharted platinum I was so OBSESSED with getting more Trophies that I found myself subconsciously refusing to play games that didn’t support them. And don’t think this obsession was limited to crap titles only – it extended to some really great games as well. Trophy addiction seriously hampered my enjoyment of Soul Calibur IV (a series I usually play ad infinitum) and even caused me huge delays in completing Valkyria Chronicles (!), which I sorely regret. I seriously considered picking up games based on their Trophy-Per-Hour ratio, despite their being mediocre at best (Knowing full well that it was crap, I almost bought Leisure Suit Larry! What the fuck, man.)

Allowing people to check their Trophies online?! That should be illegal!
How am I supposed to get any work done?

Eventually the glazy-eyed addiction wore off as I got less and less experience from each new Trophy. At TLVL 12, I think it takes 3 bronze or one silver Trophy just to get 1%, so parang nawalan ako ng gana to compete with those hardcore types who are like Level 15 and up. I also found out that a lot of people just rent games in order to up their Trophy count, which is something i’m not willing to do... as I’ve always been more of a buying person because I’m a big fan of collecting games. I still love earning Trophies, but I’m not obsessively competitive anymore and I’m content to just grab them as I go, saving my obsessive Platinum-collecting efforts for games I really, truly appreciate (next up: a triple dose of adventure, with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Dragon Age and Tomb Raider: Underworld up next on my Pt hitlist, with a dash of Modern Warfare 2's delicious brand of mindless action on the side.)

December draws near at last, and all the major releases that I want are safely in my collection – now, let the game backlog clearing begin!

Incoming Drop: God of War Collection (November 17, 2009)

I have a confession to make. Two, actually.

One: I never finished God of War 1.

Two: I never even PLAYED God of War II.

Before you get up in arms about that, I have valid reasons for this: during God of War 1’s heyday, I was able to make it all the way to the sand area until the game hung. I was playing the jacked copy and apparently the non-DVD9 version didn’t have the second half of the game. As for God of War II, my PS2 fat’s lens had long since given up the ghost by then, and I wasn’t willing to put in the work getting GOW2 up and running on PS2HD using WinHIIP, as DVD9 transfers are always tricky. Ah, the good old days.

Anyway, enough blatant discussion of PlayStation-branded piracy! With the pretty 1080p graphics and the awesome trophy support (1 set of Trophies for each game! Unprecedented.), plus the convenience of having both Kratos-filled games on a single BD, God Of War Collection is looking like a pretty solid buy for me as long as the price is right. I’d much rather pick this up than same-day release Assassin’s Creed 2, which, considering how lukewarm I was on the first game, looks like a pick-it-up-when-it-gets-cheaper sort of thing for me. Even if it's better than the first (which looks likely) I'm not paying until I see proof of quality.

Plus, it’s a way for me to pay Sony back for stealing the first two games from them in the first place. Hah!

Announcement: Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (NDS) is out!

Calling all Natsume fans, the latest edition of Farmer Fantasy(tm), otherwise known as Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (NDS), is out in English! You can stea -- er, pick it up at all the usual places. Haven’t played it as much as I want to (as most of my free time is being killed by the unholy combo of Dragon Age and MW2), but hey, it’s Harvest Moon, baby! Pretty hard to mess that up. :-D I can at least report that the graphics and framerate are very solid, and although touch control is present, it's not required. Seems very entertaining so far, the perfect nightcap game to play before I go to sleep.

Harvest Moon is like the fucking Mega Man of RPG’s – always just more of the same old crap each time, but it's so fun you play it anyway. :-D Now how about a PS3 version, guys? I’d willingly pay full price for a remade, 60fps version of HM: It’s A Wonderful Life (PS2)....

Updated Impressions: Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins is totally surprising me with just how great it is. I mean, obviously I was expecting it to be good, being a Bioware game, but I didn’t expect it to be THIS good. My little brother hated Neverwinter Nights and played bits and pieces of Knights of the Old Republic. But he’s TOTALLY addicted to DAO. In fact, between Dragon Age and Demon’s Souls, my basketball nut brother has completely stopped playing NBA 2K10 (!), which hasn’t been opened by either of us in weeks. Lately in fact, I find myself having to play the “This is my PS3 so get the fuck off” card quite often just to get in some valuable playtime.

Yes, DAO starts off quite slow, but when it gets going, Jesus Christ does it ever get going. Sanayan lang talaga dun sa combat system, and it’s far more accessible than the previous D&D engine games, having been simplified for the console crowd (unlike the PC version, the default difficulty has friendly fire off, meaning less micromanagement of your party and more skull bashing fun).

But the absolute best thing about Dragon Age is how it improves on the Star Wars: KOTOR formula by making your party members feel even more like real personalities. They comment on decisions you make, and you can alienate them or make them care for you more depending on your actions. Another thing I really like is that the world that Bioware created is so rich. If you like reading up on backstory and things like that, this game is your fucking jam. There’s lengthy descriptions on everything: unique items, library books, character profiles etc, and it makes even some of the more mundane side quests (some of which have shades of Monster Hunter-like fetch tasks, RPG cliché #1 present and accounted for) are made better by the interesting things you learn about the vast world of Ferelden. There is also plenty of playtime here if you want it: to get the Platinum, you have to reach level 20 as each of the three classes, and there’s so much choice in the game that each playthrough can be a substantially different experience. For 2,100.00 , it doesn’t get much better than this, people, and if you like American style RPG’s, I can already recommend that you pick this baby up without delay. Some niggling FPS issues nonwithstanding, this could be my new favorite Bioware game. To all the role playing geeks out there: it's safe to bring that RPG nerd card out of hiding, (cue deep booming voice) for a new messiah has come to save us humble peasants, and its name is Dragon Age: Origins.

Morrigan fucking kicks ass!

(A small note on the special edition: although the content of the package in general is acceptable – I love the Blu-Ray video disc, and I’m sipping my hoji-cha from the pre-order mug right now - the DLC download method is so FUCKED UP. I was able to download it eventually, but not until I went through an embarrassingly long process involving multiple Bioware/EA accounts, multiple PS3 login names, and restarting the Dragon Age program 3 times in the span of 10 minutes to download each piece of DLC. I BLAME EA.)

Updated Impressions: Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2

Who knew? Army guys blowing shit up = Php 17.5 B?

Modern Warfare 2 was a game I was totally expecting to be stellar, and apparently a lot of people felt the same way, having shifted an unbelievable 7 MILLION UNITS in a day or two. Man, just do the math: 7,000,000 units X an average price of say, 2,500 (a conservative estimate, as USD 60 = 2,880) = Php 17,500,000,000.00. Yes, Activision sold through 17 AND A HALF BILLION PESOS worth of Modern Warfare 2 on launch. WHAT THE FUCK, BUDDY? You could build a gigantic Philippine shopping complex with that kinda cash, right? I wonder what the final sales numbers are going to be.

Anyway, back to the game. My progress through the single player campaign has been slow, as I’m playing through on Veteran (forcing me to inch my way through the levels instead of blasting through Schwarzenegger style), but I’m done with a little more than 2/3 of the campaign and what I’ve seen has left me very impressed. Not as impressed as I was during my first playthrough of Uncharted 2, but it’s still fantastic. As always, the game’s plot makes little to no sense... but Infinity Ward is so good at getting you into that gung-ho army man mood that you don’t really care, and just roll with the atmosphere. Oorah!

That snowmobile segment just doesn't stop being fun.

Also, the Spec Ops mode is a very much appreciated addition to this year’s entry. Aside from the spectacular co-op multiplayer aspect (with 30 FPS splitscreen!), Spec Ops serves as a kind of de facto Arcade Mode, where you can shoot some dudes and have some fun without bothering with story; if you’ve played the arcade mode of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (PS2, by now-defunct Free Radical Software) it works in exactly the same way. It’s challenging fun to work towards getting all 69 stars, and boosts the offline play value of this game considerably.

Filling fools with lead - never gets old.

Online has also been greatly improved: yeah, it still is, technically speaking, the same old shit from last time, but the maps are more visually varied, are better designed than the ones from Modern Warfare 1 (and especially World at War), and the game basically gives you awards and experience for everything you do now (even more so than the first game). They’ve also stolen the player card system from Street Fighter IV, which adds yet another thing to collect and obsess over. Another big plus: server disconnects have been made a thing of the past, as if your host encounters a problem MW2 pauses the game and migrates to a new one, with all aspects of the game (location, status, kills, streaks) retained in full. There’s plenty of stuff to unlock as expected (modes, weapon upgrades etc.) so you always feel like you’re being rewarded even if you just play a game or two. Speaking of playing a game or two, MW2 still has that dag-blasted “just one more game” element that will keep you up into the early hours of the morning. Again. So if you have important stuff to do, it’s probably a good idea to keep this on the back burner until you’re finished.

One thing I wish they would fix though is adjusting the rotation of maps depending on the number of players in the game session. For example, if you’re playing free for all with, say, six players, they should remove big, sprawling maps like Estate from the playlist because you end up having to run around for long periods of time looking for somebody to shoot, and you can’t just log out of the match because A) it’ll count as a loss and B) you’ll look like a quitting jerk even though you’re leaving for a legitimate reason. Small gripe though, no biggie.

Second Hand Slumming Installment No. 2: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (R1)

I traded off my copy of Lost Planet (R1) to a friend for his copy of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (R1). It was a pretty good deal, considering that I never really liked the first LP (I AM eagerly awaiting the sequel though, as it looks more MMO-lite in nature). I distinctly remember taking LP home and proudly showing it to my brother. He read the back of the box, saw “highly realistic next-gen graphics” as one of the selling points, popped it in, waited for the 4.7GB install to finish, and (finally) started playing. He spent about a minute laughing at the crapulent visuals, then he quit and never touched it again.

Anyway, going back to the Star Wars game: I love the universe, and I’ve played the first version of the game way back when it was released on the PS2, so I know exactly what I was getting into. For better or for worse, this is a shiny HD version of the first two PS2 games on a single Blu-Ray, which means the graphics are pretty bad and the gameplay is simple fun. The high-fidelity John Williams score is present and accounted for, and there’s plenty of stuff to unlock for completists; beating the game with 100% completion is going to take a whole lot of time, probably more than I have to commit. It also has no trophy support, which is mildly disappointing, but the game is definitely fun enough that I was satisfied with the trade, and happy to have it in my library.

Unfortunately, it now sits at the very rear of my backlog of "To Play" games. With that list containing more than 10 titles, it’ll be quite some time before Lego Star Wars spins in the old disc drive again.

Someday, Luke, someday. A Jedi is patient.

Impressions: Dragon Age Origins (CE) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Nerdgasm!

Today was a truly momentous day in the jnlxandr household, as I managed to come back from Rockwell bearing the dual blessings of Dragon Age: Origins (the collector's edition, 2,850 cash) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (the standard edition, 2,495 cash), both of which just arrived at Datablitz earlier today. w00t! The store was packed with geeks trying to pick up either or both of the two games, as I expected.

I'm writing this impressions post at one in the morning, having spent the last 5 hours giving both games the business, and here's what I have to report.

Dragon Age: Origins - Collector's Edition (R3)

I was actually sort of forced into buying the CE - I didn't know that preordering DAO required you to buy the collectors edition. All in all, it's a pretty decent package: you get some extra DLC (which I haven't tried downloading yet, but the code's in the jewel case), a nice wooden box with the Dragon Age logo and insignia, a reaaaaally cheap looking cloth map that looks like it took all of 20 pesos to manufacture, and an extra Blu-Ray with making of featurettes and other extra crap. You also get the extra DAO branded mug from Datablitz.

Now, I don't think it's necessarily 750 bucks worth of content, but if you're a big Bioware fan it's still not a bad deal. Hmmm... but when you think about it, for that money you could pick up a brand new Greatest Hits title like Bad Company or (ugh) Devil May Cry 4 along with your super cheapo Php 2,100 version of Dragon Age. *devil's advocate* Hehehe.

Anyway, back to the game itself. It looks very promising - I've played through about 2 hours's worth (the Human Noble prologue and a bit of the Grey Warden camp that follows), and I've been very satisfied thus far. It looks like a high quality Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (which is to say, the world is very pretty and the characters are very robotic), with the same crappy framerate and the same gigantic install. What I like most about it is that the gameplay resembles a next generation Neverwinter Nights, except with a much better focus on story - the dialogue trees are well-written & fun to explore, and there's plenty of extra info lying around in books and chracter profiles if you want to learn more about the world of Ferelden. (Having previously read the prequel novel Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, a lot of the back story already resonates with me.) Still, people who are unfamiliar with Bioware RPG's (especially people who play mostly Japanese RPG's like Final Fantasy) should try before they buy, as this looks like the D&D system in all but name.

I'll have more on DAO soon, that is, as soon as I can tear myself away from...

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (R1)

This was very, very impressive indeed. The single player campaign is really, really freaking awesome so far (the action scenes will absolutely blow you away!), but what really took me off guard was the Spec Ops mode. As you've no doubt heard, this mode is composed of a bunch of little mini-missions that you can do in solo and co-op mode, and it's dangerously addictive. No story, no frills, just you pitting your skills against Infinity Ward's devious challenges.

Next question: How's the online multi? Well, I wouldn't know because for the life of me I couldn't manage fucking log on, even after waiting for ten minutes. I'll try it out again tommorrow and hopefully it works by then. Ahh, it's Infinity Ward, they'll figure out a way to fix it.

Time to get some sleep! :-)

EDIT: It turns out it's a server side thing, Infinity Ward grossly underestimated the demand for the PS3 version's multiplayer and are adding servers as I type this. Whew!

Nostalgia!

I encourage the NDS-owning RPG fans among you (who also own some sort of emulating flashcart, ahem ahem) to give the recently released Nostalgia a try. Developed by Thousand Arms (PS1) developer Red Entertainment, this aptly named adventure trots out every RPG cliche in the book in rapid, unrelenting succession -

Spunky, sword toting boy hero (CHECK!) who wants to spread his wings and become an adventurer (CHECK!)? Said plucky hero risking his life to save some chick he met, like, 5 FUCKING MINUTES AGO (CHECK)!Evil artifact capable of causing mass destruction (CHECK)! Active Time Battle clone combat system (CHECK)!

You may think I'm down on it, but I'm totally not! It's so traditional and "classic" feeling that it becomes endearing rather than annoying. Yeah, Nostalgia may have its flaws, but I know certain camps of JRPG nuts out there (I'm looking at you, Wild Arms fans) that will eat this up with a spoon. I mean, just look at that screen shot boys, sooooo OLD SCHOOL.

Plus, it's free. You're stealing it off the fucking Internet man, can't complain. :-)

On the Radar: Report # 1

This is a new series of columns I’m going to be writing – in each installment, I’m going to touch on a handful of games that I’m looking forward to, with a focus on covering titles that haven’t been given much attention. I’ll cover some mainstream titles as well, but only if they have something (a feature, something that caught my eye) that I think merits your attention. I’ll also add some links to existing previews from other game sites to get you up to speed on the game if you haven’t heard of it.

Let’s start off with some RPG goodness from our weird ass pals in Japan.

3D Dot Game Heroes

Level of Anticipation: 10/10 – OFF THE MOTHERFUCKING SCALE, MOTHERFUCKERS!

Preview Links (click to open):
Destructoid (article)
Destructoid (with Zelda homage video)

I’ve never really thought much of From Software before; the King’s Field series (PS1/PS2) never really did it for me, and the company’s non-RPG output ranges from decent (Armored Core series, PS1/PS2/PS3) to absolutely embarrassing (Ninja Blade, X360). All that changed, however, when I played Demon’s Souls. DS is one of the most remarkably hardcore games I have ever played, on any system: the game doesn’t teach you anything (making you learn everything through personal experience) and penalizes every mistake you make with painful, agonizing death. Despite this, Demon’s Souls amazingly finds a way to make failure FUN, and finally getting things right after your nth screw-up just makes the ride all the more exhilarating.

That said, Demon’s Souls quality makes the wait for their next release, 3D Dot Game Heroes, all the more difficult. It’s an action RPG in the vein of the Zelda series with seemingly limitless customizability – you can create your own in-game character with the game’s powerful dot matrix editor. Already enterprising Japanese nerds have made astounding 8-bit replicas of Cloud Strife and Old Snake.

If From Software can bring a reasonable facsimile of the traditional Zelda gameplay to this title (and it appears they will, as the game seems to be a parody of Miyamoto’s classic series), they just might have a shot at becoming my favorite RPG company. (For those that care, my current favorite RPG developer is the legendary Atlus R&D 1, responsible for the Persona series and many other classics) Chalk me up as a ready buyer for this, boys.

Darksiders: Wrath of War

Level of Anticipation: 5/10 – Could be good. Getting curious.

Preview Links (click to open):
IGN PS3
UGO

I've only recently begun tracking Darksiders; games with strong connections to famous comic book artists (in this case the venerable Joe Madureira) don't exactly have the best track record: Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S and Todd McFarlane's Spawn and Evil Prophecy game tie-ins have all been uniformly terrible. In each of the cases, the result was generally style over substance.

However, after seeing extended previews of the game I'm beginning to think that Joe Mad's maiden effort might actually be worth watching out for - check it out for yourselves at the links above. I think some cautious optimism is in order - could this be some kick ass fusion of Devil May Cry and Soul Reaver? Damn, I miss Soul Reaver.

Bayonetta (JPN import)
Level of Anticipation: 9/10 – Do fucking want.

Preview Links (click to open):
Kotaku (Costume Gallery)
Kotaku (Famitsu Review)

I'm not going to write too much about Bayonetta as I'm quite sure that the hype machine fueling game sites accross the Internet has already rocked your face with plenty of info regarding this. However, one thing that caught my attention while reading about Hideki Kamiya's latest creation is the presence of a play mechanic that intrigues me greatly: the offensive tech roll, which has been given the moniker "Witch Time".

Basically, what this means is if you dodge an opponent's attack at the very last second before it connects, you get a few precious seconds of bullet time (you move at normal speed, everything else slows down) in which to lay waste to your foes. Needless to say, this is a very hardcore-oriented mechanic, and encourages you to always be on the attack. Man, that kind of risk-reward mechanic really makes my day (shades of Parrying in Street Fighter III), and my thumbs are twitching just thinking about it.

Does Bayonetta deserve the perfect/near-perfect scores it recieved from venerable Japanese game magazine Famitsu? Will it dethrone the first Ninja Gaiden Sigma as the premier hardcore action game on the PS3?

Hey, the Japanese import's out now (in full English) so if any of y'all have extra money to burn, pick it up and tell me!

Launch Trailer: Modern Warfare 2 / Black market release

For those of you who might not yet have seen it, here’s the final prelaunch tailer (link) for Infinity Ward’s latest and greatest, set to the sweet sounds of “ 'Till I Collapse” by Eminem feat. Nate Dogg.

That beat is still so classic, Eminem kicks ass!

Hype-O-Meter reaching critical levels…

BTW, some black market pre-release copies have already found their way into the wild (look to Greenhills if you want some of that) but officially copies of the game are arriving at Datablitz on Wednesday and I-Tech on Thursday. Price will probably be mga Php 2,950.00.

Cha-ching! Simot nanaman ang laman ng wallet. :-(

Modern Warfare 2 fans: This is a must-read article

If you've been paying attention to the pre-release buzz regarding Infinity Ward's much awaited Modern Warfare 2, you've no doubt heard about the controversial airport scene that was leaked. For those that haven't, here's a synopsis: In it, you play the part of American military personnel that storm an airport, presumably for counterterrorism purposes. However, the other members of your team start shooting the innocent civilians as well (in highly realistic fashion, with the innocents begging for mercy), and it is your choice as a player to either join in the senseless carnage or just watch from a distance. Powerful stuff, to be sure, but some people are so turned off by the nature of the violence that they are swearing off buying the game at all.

I just thought I would call some more attention to this great, great piece (link) by Destructoid's Jim Sterling. Yes, I know some of you PPS guys think he's a biased Xbox-favoring troll, and in some respects, yes he is. However, he's also a very talented, entertaining writer, and one of my favorite bloggers on any game site. His post is a great read, explaining why he chooses to support Modern Warfare 2.

(And for the counterpoint, here's Destructoid's Brad Rice on why he won't support MW2.)

So which side are you on?

Sweet revenge

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata's recent comments (link) regarding Nintendo's staggering loss in net sales and profit for the year basically validated all the bad feelings myself and other ex-Nintendo faithful have expressed over the past few years. If you haven't been keeping up with the gaming business news, Wii sales basically stalled and Iwata admitted that it was because of their inability to come up with compelling software.

No shit buddy, that's what people have been trying to tell you for years! You and Shiggy Miyamoto bet the farm on this "Blue Ocean" strategy, betting that the casual market would keep you afloat. But in the end, your pandering to them forces you to focus company resources on developing idiotic tripe like Wii Fit, instead of a new Zelda etc. The high volume of casual users on the system also results in hardcore-marketed games selling like crap -- Dead Space Extraction sold 9,000 copies on launch. 9,000 COPIES! -- so you can forget about the third parties coming to save your ass.

And Nintendo has been so deficient with coming out with compelling software in recent years that I find my love for their once-classic franchises diminishing with every year that passes.

I mean, I finished Zelda: Twilight Princess all the way through, but it wasn't all that good, and ranks as one of the crappiest Zelda games I've ever played. Ditto for New Super Mario Bros. (it was old school, yes, but it got old as the game wore on and lacked the charm of Super Mario World for the SNES) and Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (the control left a little to be desired, and the one-large-timed dungeon idea fell flat).

What the hell is up, Miyamoto? I want to support you, but you're not giving me a good reason to at all. :-(